Park Bonds - Follow the Money

The $66 million for Park Bonds doesn’t just put the $62 million in interest costs in the paper shredder, the fees paid to the bond broker and real estate agent would total $3.3 million. The total debt for both bonds would be $128 million in principle and interest paid over 30 years. The $62 million in interest assumes that bond interest would cost 5% of the unpaid balance. We think the bonds will be front-loaded in 2012, before interest rates rise.

Bond Supporters

Obviously the majority of the current sitting City Council members and city staff support the Park Bonds. A yes vote raises our property taxes by .75 Mils for each Bond. The 1.5 Mil hike in our property tax would cover the $4.3 million debt service, so instead of having $21 million in revenue, we would have $25 million in revenue. So, lets see where the money goes:

The bond broker, I’m told, gets 2% of the bond value or $1.32 million. The land sellers support the Park Bonds and the real estate agents get 6% commissions. If we buy $33 million in land and pay a 6% real estate fee, this would be $1.98 million. Transaction costs to by the hospital site for $6.1 million could be $366 thousand. Contractors support the Park Bonds because they need the work now and of the bonds pass, most of the work would go on the front end. Future Bond holders will want their $62 million in interest. The total amount going into the paper shredder is $65.32 million.

The Preservation Trust gets $5.8 million; $2.9 million to renovate Donaldson Farm $2.9 million for the Cultural Arts Center and The Stage Door Players. The Nature Center gets $3.3 million to build a new building, dismantle the ball fields and add other upgrades. That leaves the Senior Baseball League 3 ball fields. Without the baseball fields that’s $9.1 million.

The boards of these non-profit 501C3 Trusts are unanimously in favor of the Park Bonds, because they believe new facilities will attract more patrons to these venues. The PCID wants Perimeter Park and more parks later. Many Dunwoody leaders support the Park Bonds and few have voiced any objections. Dan Weber and his co-presenters defend the Park Bonds when questioned.

Brook Run gets $15 million to move the dog park (we don’t know where) and upgrade facilities. Windwood Hollow gets $1.9 million for upgrades. Perimeter Park gets 1.5 million to be established. Georgetown Park gets $4 million to be established. That’s $22.4 million.

The Plan

Bond interest and fees will eat up $65.32 million. We pay double for the privilege of doing this fast and when government spends in big lumps they overpay for everything. Of the other $66 million, low use non-profit venues get $9.1 million to move, rebuild and renovate. Add the $9.1 million for the non-profits to the 22.4 million for parks, you get $31.5 million for park and venue improvements, then you need to add the new senior league ball field location . The ball fields could to go to the PVC Farm and we’re over budget. On the land side $6.1 million goes to buy the hospital, but there are no funds left to do anything with it. It sounds like the other $27 million for land would probably be used to purchase blighted areas with no funds to fix them up. Now that’s a really expensive seat-of-your-pants kind of plan I can vote NO for !

Economic Development

The PCID, Chamber of Commerce and City Council are busy trying to keep our businesses here and are working to being new business to occupy our commercial and office empty space. The PCID and City Council believe having more, well outfitted parks will help. We appreciate their work, but we think businesses will come and go for different reasons. We think fixing our main roads and intersections would impress prospective companies looking to relocate.

Redevelopment Referendum

Beware the Redevelopment Referendum. It transfers your authority to the City Council to establish Tax Authorizing Distracts (TADs) like Atlanta has for the Beltline and other projects. These TADs are unelected and can authorize Bond sales without a citizen vote. They also have Eminent Domain powers way beyond widening roads. This was added to the ballot, but reading it on the ballot doesn’t tell you what it means. We think the current city council would use Parks Bond funds to buy distressed properties and use TADs to develop more parks tied to commercial property. We urge a No vote on this one.

The Vote No folks

We think we need to replace the roads that won’t hold a patch, because the beds for these roads are rotten. We believe the main roads and intersections need to be fixed up and expanded to 3 lanes in some sections to expedite left turns. We are on these roads all the time. We want our sewers maintained and repaired as necessary.
We think the double cost of Bonds makes them a really bad deal for taxpayers. We think parks are not important enough to go into that much debt; they are a want, not a need. We believe land prices will likely stay the same or decline. We don’t think the City should buy more land for parks now. We believe our economy will not improve for several years. We don’t want the City to go into debt…ever. We want the City to improve the parks with simple maintenance, grass seed and modest incremental improvements.

We think our parks and venues are underutilized and will continue to be underutilized even after they’re fixed up. We don’t want a patchwork of parks; all we really need is one and Brook Run is the only one big enough.

We’ve never been to the Spruill Center and we don’t go much to the Nature center. We would probably go to the Donaldson Farm, once. We like to pass the Dunwoody Farmhouse, but not much goes on there. We don’t go to see the Stage Door Players or to the Library or to pottery or basket weaving classes.

We are content going to our subdivision swim and tennis clubs, Murphy Candler and Dunwoody Baptist for sports and our cul de sacs to play ball and ride bikes. We go to Azalea Drive and Morgan Falls for the river. We go to Roswell Park, Sandy Springs or Norcross for concerts. We go to the play area at North Point Mall and the Fun Place in Roswell when it rains.

Dunwoody Village

We wonder how Dunwoody Village got on the Parks Plan with no cost estimate. We doubt that the real owners are in a position to “re-do” Dunwoody Village in the middle of a recession. Tearing it out and rebuilding it would cost a fortune, yet it’s in the plan of a city that is doing everything it can to raise cash with bond debt.

Economic Assumptions

Not good. The federal government needs to cut spending at least $1 trillion a year. We have a lot of government employees in the Atlanta area. We expect another round of layoffs, foreclosures and lower property values…again….within the next 2 years. It’s not a good time for any city to go into debt. When global government debt hits the Debt Wall (no bond buyers, no more loans), the global economy will shrink by 40%. They longer they prop it up, the worse it will be. We are not far from the Debt Wall. That bubble burst will cause another round of layoffs, foreclosures and declining property tax.

Other Ballot Issues

We urge a NO vote on Parks Bonds and a NO vote on the Redevelopment Referendum and a NO vote the E-SPLOST, 1 cent sales tax renewal for DeKalb schools.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader